Digital 395, a 583-mile project running from Barstow to Reno, is wrapping up its final construction in areas around the Inyo National Forest, including the Crowley Lake dam, according to Mike Ort, the broadband project manager.

“That is the last section of the project that needs to be connected,” Ort said on Friday. The conduit and the fiber-optic cable will be installed as well, he added. “That will complete the connection between Barstow and Reno.”

Digital 395 will connect the region between Barstow and Reno with a high-speed fiber optic network, dramatically increasing Internet and communication access for certain areas in the Eastern Sierra.

However, it has found itself behind schedule and over budget. The federal government paid for $81 million of the project, while the California Public Utilities Commission foot the bill for another $19 million.

Digital 395 faced some hurdles, including completing a nine-mile stretch east of the Crowley Lake Dam and an expensive permit process to finish its construction in the Inyo National Forest area.

“We've spent approximately $25 million on environmental-related processes alone,” Ort said. Those costs include reports, studies and procedures to avoid culturally or environmentally sensitive areas in the region.

Ort said the federal government helped as much as it could to streamline the permit process for Inyo National Forest prior to its shutdown on Oct. 1, after Congress failed to agree on a spending plan for the 2014 fiscal year.

“A lot of people might have the impression that workers just got up from their desks and left,” Ort said. “But a lot of people worked a lot of long nights to get things done before they left.”

In September, Ort and the Digital 395 Project asked the CPUC for an additional $9.9 million to finish up the Crowley Lake gap, in addition to other gaps and “anchor” connections to places like Cerro Coso College's Bishop campus.

“We have 75 percent of our anchors completed and should finish up most of them by the end of the month,” Ort said.

He said some beta testing of services is already underway in areas like Mammoth, and Internet company SuddenLink will begin delivering enhanced services to the area in the next month.

Once complete, Ort said most of the anchor sites — or public institutions like schools, government facilities and hospitals — will see the network turned on.

In Ridgecrest and Inyokern, the anchor sites include all schools in the Sierra Sands Unified School District, Ridgecrest Regional Hospital, Cerro Coso College, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Ridgecrest city municipal facilities, and Inyokern Airport.

Page 2 of 2 - Ort said that there remain some areas that need to be connected, like a school in Big Pine, and will be part of the clean-up factor. The entire project will be finished by Thanksgiving, he said.

However, Ort said “service will be turned up on Nov. 1” for most middle-mile, or public, institutions.

“Last mile providers will also be able to tap into the network at the same time,” Ort said.

Ort stressed that the major last mile providers — Mediacom and Verizon — in Ridgecrest have not yet approached Digital 395 to utilize the increased speed.

“It will be only a matter of time before those services are provided,” Ort said. “There is likely to be increased demand for the higher speeds available through the network.”

With the near-completion of the project, Ort sees it as a success.

“We are really proud that we will be able to deliver a better access to communications, and I am proud of the staff that has made this happen,” Ort said.